


An Abraded Excuse

by raendown



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-28
Updated: 2017-12-28
Packaged: 2019-02-23 04:35:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13182480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raendown/pseuds/raendown
Summary: A few years after the war Sakura lets her hair grow out again only to be painfully reminded how annoying it is to keep it at such a length. How does Ino even deal with this? Luckily Kakashi has a hidden skill up his sleeve that makes her life so much better - in more ways than one.





	An Abraded Excuse

She didn’t even need to ask anymore. All it took was sitting down with her back to the man and letting a whine rise up in her throat and Sakura knew that within half a minute she would feel gloved fingers ever so gently tugging at her hair. Why had she grown it out long again? Was it this much trouble the last time it had touched her waist?

Although she never could have guessed it of him, Kakashi had become her saving grace. Evidently the man was an absolute pro at braiding hair in to all sorts of delightful styles, some practical, others flashy. If she caught him in one of his naps on the training grounds he would weave any nearby flowers in to her locks and casually tell her why the contrasting colors looked awful on her. It never failed to bleed away the frustration which had sent her to him in the first place.

Long hair certainly looked nice but Sakura had no idea how Ino had dealt with it for all these years now that her own had grown out as well. It got caught on _everything_ , was constantly getting in her face, and every time she threw on a second layer she would have to dig the mass of pink locks out of her collar, flipping it like some ungraceful magazine model trying too hard. She missed the days of getting all the hair out of her face at once with one swipe of her hand, the days of being able to tame the nest with a simple headband. Most of all she missed not getting it caught in every zipper or strip of Velcro within a five mile radius.

Kakashi was the only reason she hadn’t cut it all off yet. Her old-teacher-turned-good-friend never seemed to mind that she’d taken to using him as a free hair dresser now that she knew what he was capable of. Sakura considered herself fairly skilled at reading the expressions hidden behind his mask and she would even dare to say that he always looked rather relaxed and content after she’d asked him for help yet again.

Today was no different than any of the other times they’d done this. Thin fingers combed languidly through her long hair and she closed her eyes under the sensation. He always started like this, practically massaging her scalp as he brought her hair to order, and Sakura was far from complaining when it felt so nice. Kakashi hummed in thought the way he did sometimes, obviously wondering what he felt like creating today. It was obvious that he had decided when he started parting her hair in to different sections, holding some of it up and out of the way with one of the hair ties he had taken to wearing around his wrist.

Feeling eyes on her, Sakura opened her own from where they had fallen closed in bliss and looked around the room, wondering why their friends were looking at them in such a manner. Sure they were in the Hokage’s office but it wasn’t as though there was anyone present who would make this inappropriate in some way. They were among friends, here. Yet Naruto was pretending to gag over the garbage bin, Sai was peeking up at them as he frantically wrote in that little notebook he always carried around for learning social behavior, and Yamato was almost glaring at her with narrowed eyes and a stiff posture. Odd behavior all around considering she was pretty sure all of them had seen this happen before at least once. It was nothing new.

“Something wrong?” she asked with an arch tone. Behind her head, Kakashi’s fingers didn’t even falter.

“You guys are so gross,” Naruto mumbled. Sai scribbled down another note.

“No, your face is gross,” Sakura shot back by habit. “We’re not even doing anything!”

“Hmph. If you call that not doing anything.” Yamato sat back farther in his seat and tucked his chin down without taking his eyes off the two of them.

Kakashi chuckled but Sakura didn’t dare turn her head to watch and thereby risk messing up what he was doing. “Nothing going on here but a little hair braiding,” he said lightly. Done with the first section, he released one of the portions he had tied off earlier and set to work on that instead.

“You know, you never did tell me how you learned how to do all this,” Sakura mentioned. The man behind her hummed again, this time sounding more amused than thoughtful.

“Why, I used to braid Tenzou’s hair when we were in ANBU of course.”

As the entire rest of the room turned to look at him, Yamato’s face turned a brilliant shade of red. He leapt out of his seat like it had caught fire and stomped towards the door as though what Kakashi had said had been incredibly offensive. “You didn’t have to bring _that_ up, Senpai!”

Wrenching the door open, he fled down the hall. Naruto grabbing Sai by the arm and bolted after him with amazed questions already spilling out of him. That Yamato used to have hair long enough to braid was something they’d never known and evidently Naruto found that little tidbit fascinating. Sakura figured she would leave the teasing to her other two teammates, content to sit here and allow Kakashi to finish whatever he was creating back there.

For a few minutes they sat in comfortable silence. Sakura let her eyes fall closed again and drifted, no thoughts in her mind except how nice it felt to have fingers playing with her hair and a mental note to do this for Ino at some point. Maybe she could talk Kakashi in to teaching her how to do one of the simpler styles; her fingers likely weren’t dexterous enough to do any of the more complicated creations he’d come up with.

“I think he’s a little jealous,” she heard her companion mumble eventually.

“Who, Yamato?” Sakura raised one eyebrow even though he couldn’t see it. “Of what?”

“Hm, to be honest I only braided his hair for him because I knew he had a crush on me. This may surprise you but I was a bit of a dick back then.”

“Oh yeah. Big Surprise.”

“There’s no need to sound so sarcastic about it.”

She couldn’t see him but Sakura could tell he was laughing. If he hadn’t still had possession of her hair she would have been shaking her head in exasperation. “Alright well why do you do my hair then?”

“Ah my dear Sakura. If you can’t figure that out then you’re not the brightest kunoichi of your generation as I’ve been led to believe.”

Just like that Sakura felt the floor shifting beneath her feet. It was a good thing she was already sitting down since her knees were suddenly so weak she thought she might have fallen over. As though sensing her need to whip around and stare at him, Kakashi pulled a few strands of hair in to place with a tiny bit more force than necessary; not enough to hurt but just enough to remind her to stay still until he was finished.

With barely contained energy suddenly bubbling just under the surface her skin, Sakura went back in her memory to the very first time Kakashi had braided her hair. Amazingly, it had been him that offered to do it. The way he’d spoken had been so casual that she hadn’t even suspected any ulterior motives – although she’d been so annoyed at the time she wasn’t sure she would have been able to pick up on anything if there had been one. But she distinctly remembered the way he’d been lounging, utterly relaxed, his attention on something else as he casually spoke over his shoulder to inform her that he knew how to braid hair and would be happy to do so for her if it would get her to stop grousing.

Now that she thought about it, however, perhaps he’d been _too_ casual. That was the same purposely detached voice he always used when he was trying to get something, tricking someone else in to fetching it for him by convincing them that it was their idea to do so. But if he was trying to convince her to do something for him then what was the point in doing weeks and months of favors over and over for her instead? It made no sense.

And that was without even considering the fact that apparently Yamato had been crushing on Kakashi since they were both members of the Black Ops together, seemingly still was to this day judging by the jealous way he had stormed out. Yamato’s crush and the fact that Kakashi had only done _his_ hair to mess with him because of it just added to the confusion.

“There we are. All done.”

“Huh?”

“Take a look.”

Distracted by her own thoughts, she hadn’t even noticed that Kakashi was finished until he gently patted the top of her head and announced it. Even as she reached up with curious fingers Sakura was hopping out of her chair and rushing across the room to check her reflection in the small mirror still hanging on the wall from the days in which this had been Tsunade’s office. When she saw herself her jaw nearly dropped.

“It’s beautiful,” she breathed in awe, turning her head from side to side and loving it more with every new angle.

“Maa, a crown for the queen of my heart.”

He had indeed made a crown out of her hair, so seamless she couldn’t tell where the braid ended or started, and she couldn’t help but think that this hairstyle paired with a beautiful dress actually would make her feel like a queen. But that wasn’t why she spun around to gape at the man behind her.

“For the–?” Her words caught in her throat when she saw how close he was standing. She hadn’t even noticed him approaching, too busy looking at herself to even notice his reflection in the mirror. Now their chests were almost brushing as he raised one hand to frame her face, hovering just beside her without actually touching her skin.

“Figured it out yet?” he asked.

“You’re the one that has a crush on me.” It felt like a risk just to give voice to the thought but her reward was immediate in the color that splashed itself across the top of his mask. Despite how embarrassed he obviously was, all Kakashi did was turn his eyes up in a friendly smile.

“Can you blame a man for wanting to be close to such a beautiful woman?”

“Keep calling me beautiful and we’ll see where it gets you.” Her cheeks immediately began to burn as well but Sakura lifted her chin up and raised her eyebrows challengingly, biting her lip to stop herself from laughing. If he could be bold then so could she.

It was hard to tell whether Kakashi was choking on surprise or laughter but he rallied quickly. “I think I take that back. Beautiful would almost be an insult. You’re more than beautiful; you’re sublime.”

“Ooh, good word, I like that one.”

“I thought you would.”

“Keep going.”

“Let’s see. I would also call you gorgeous, stunning, magnificent, and…pretty.”

Biting her lip even harder, Sakura fought not to laugh. “Pretty?”

“I don’t know I couldn’t think of any more words.” Kakashi rubbed at the back of his head sheepishly. “My mind has a terrible habit of going absolutely blank whenever I’m around you.”

“Oh. I hadn’t noticed.” She really hadn’t. He was much too good at being sneaky for her to catch something like that.

“Yes I noticed you not noticing anything. Which is why I thought maybe I should say something a little more obvious before we both die of old age without you ever getting a clue.”

“Hey!”

“Although I’m sure you will look just as beautiful when you’re that age.”

Rolling her eyes, Sakura figured she should shut the man up before he got too far ahead of himself. She had to stand up on her tiptoes to reach but the moment she pressed her lips to his Kakashi groaned and bent forward ever so slightly to make things a bit more comfortable for her. It wasn’t the best kiss she’d ever had, although that was probably because of the mask that separated them from actually touching. Still a damn good kiss though, enough so that she could tell just one kiss without the mask there was likely to turn her knees to water.

When her heels finally touched carpet again, separating them and allowing them both to blink at each other in awe, she reached up and slipped both of her arms around his shoulders to keep him close. Kakashi looked a little startled, spaced out as though he were currently drifting off in to a wonderful dreamland, but he also looked rather pleased by this turn of events.

“I’ll make you a deal,” Sakura told him quietly. “You refrain from teasing me about how long it took me to look ‘underneath the underneath’ and I’ll let you take me out for dinner on Saturday night.”

“That sounds like a good deal to me,” Kakashi replied.

“Well I’m glad you approve.”

“I would also approve of another kiss.”

Quietly giggling at the hopeful look in his eye, Sakura lifted her face and tugged with her arms to encourage him to lean down a little more. Just before they reached each other she pulled her head back with a teasing smile.

“You want a kiss, you take off your mask,” she bargained.

Laughter exploded from her when suddenly she found herself bent backwards with a hand over her eyes and a pair of exposed lips nipping teasingly at her neck. It seemed despite his eagerness to please her he wasn’t quite ready to let go of the mystery of his mask. Sakura was surprised to realize that she was fine with that. If he wanted her to close her eyes so he could kiss her then she would for now. He could have all the time he needed to be comfortable.

As soon as she was able to contain her laughter Kakashi caught her lips in a second kiss and she discovered that she had been correct. Right away she found she could barely support herself and Sakura wondered how she had survived so many years without such amazing kisses in her life.

“Wow,” she heard herself whimper against his lips. “That deserves a date all on its own.”

“Does that mean I get to tease you then?” Kakashi asked cheekily.

Sakura dropped her head against his shoulder and began to giggle again.

If he asked she was prepared to confess to having a tiny little crush of her own for a while now, although she hadn’t thought anything would ever come of it and had resisted letting herself get too attached. She never would have imagined that dating Kakashi would be so much fun right from the start but Sakura was more than happy to be proven wrong.

Kakashi had his mask back in place by the time she lifted her head again and all Sakura did was smile at him. He smiled back and held her a little bit tighter.

“You look nice,” he told her. “Who does your hair?”

“Oh my boyfriend does it for me.” Sakura batted her eyelashes at him dramatically.

“Sounds like a nice guy.”

“He is.”

“You should go to lunch with him, I think. Seems to me that he would be pretty hungry after all that hair braiding.”

“You know, that is a fantastic idea.”

Grinning widely, Sakura waited for Kakashi to let her go before linking her arm with his and leaving the office together. He had made her a crown and Sakura had to admit that she felt like nothing less than the queen of the entire world as she walked the streets with him at her side.

**Author's Note:**

> For anyone interested, here's a link to what I imagine he's done to her hair. 
> 
> http://missysue.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/dutch-crown-braid-5.jpg


End file.
